After a year of crisscrossing the state, you will not see Luxemburg native Megan Salentine sporting a crown and sash after this week. The competition for the 60th Wisconsin Fairest of the Fairs began Sunday, signaling the end of Salentine’s reign.

Last summer, Salentine visited 57 fairs across the state, including the Wisconsin State Fair and county fairs in Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties.

“At each and every fair, I interacted with the people that make the fair industry world go around, each of them becoming a part of my fair story,” Salentine wrote last fall before heading back to St. Norbert College for her senior year. “Across fair staff and volunteers, exhibitors, vendors, family members, entertainers, superintendents and fair heroes, the passion in the fair industry is so very alive.”

At the Brown County Fair last August, the 2017 Kewaunee County Junior Fairest and 2024 Kewaunee County Fairest shared how blessed she felt to hold the title at the state level.

Salentine will help crown her successor Wednesday evening in Wisconsin Dells.